Wednesday, October 19, 2011

At least seven people have been killed and dozens wounded after armed menloyal to President Ali Abdullah Saleh opened fire on demonstrators in theYemeni capital, witnesses say.

Residents of Sanaa told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that several injured peoplewere kidnapped after protesters calling on Saleh to step down were trappedby security forces inside the Al-Qaa neighbourhood.

According to the witnesses, armed men loyal to the embattled president haderected tents in the street to block an anti-government march.

The protesters came under attack as they marched from Change Square toAl-Qaa, a district where government buildings are located.

The latest violence came as the United Nations condemned the killing ofpeaceful protesters in Yemen.

UN condemnation

"We condemn in the strongest terms the reported killing of a number oflargely peaceful protestors in Sanaa and Taez as a result of theindiscriminate use of force by Yemeni security forces since Saturday,"Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for HumanRights, said.

"We are extremely concerned that security forces continue to use excessiveforce in a climate of complete impunity for crimes resulting in heavy lossof life and injury, despite repeated pledges by the government to thecontrary," he added.

In a letter to Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, she said: "This isthe only thing that will give Yemenis... confidence that internationaljustice exists... and that it extends far enough to reach Saleh, his gangand all the despots who continue to kill innocents."

Karman and tens of thousands of other pro-democracy activists have formonths been camped out in Sanaa's Change Square, demanding an end toSaleh's long rule.

The crackdown by government troops on anti-government protests has killedhundreds since the mass protest movement, inspired by uprisings in othercountries in the region, began in late January.

SANAA, Yemen — Yemeni government forces opened fire Tuesday on protestersin Sanaa, killing 12 and injuring more than 70, a medical official said, aday after the capital witnessed its worst fighting in weeks.

Mohammed al-Qubati, the director of a field hospital at the main protestsite in Sanaa dubbed "Change Square," said more than 70 protesters wereinjured in the protests demanding the resignation of President AliAbdullah Saleh.

Tens of thousands of protesters marched through Sanaa, led by shirtlessyoung men with the words "Leave ... you butcher" scrawled across theirchests, referring to Saleh, .

Soldiers from the Republican Guard, a loyalist unit led by Saleh's sonAhmed, arrested four female protesters who were ahead of the maindemonstration, said activist Habib al-Uraiqi.

Abdel-Rahman Berman of Yemen's National Organization for Defending Rightsand Freedoms (HOOD) said Saleh's forces used live ammunition and harshtear gas.

Berman said HOOD team monitoring the situation charged that governmentforces and thugs abducted female protesters and some wounded demonstratorsin a "shameful and criminal way."

Similar demonstrations were held in other parts of Yemen, including thesouthern cities of Aden and Taiz, protest organizers said.

The protesters called for Saleh to be put on trial for killingdemonstrators and urged the international community and the U.N. SecurityCouncil to help topple him.

On Tuesday, key members of the Security Council began considering aBritish-drafted resolution that would call for an immediate cease-fire inYemen and transfer of power, as well as immediate action by Yemeniauthorities to end attacks against civilians. The consultations are stillin progress.

President Saleh is accused by many Yemenis of pushing the country intocivil war by tenaciously clinging to power in the face of eight months ofmass protests across the country, the defection to the opposition of keytribal and military allies and mounting international pressure on him tostep down.

He has balked at a U.S.-backed plan proposed by Saudi Arabia and its fivesmaller allies in the Gulf Cooperation Council to hand over power to hisdeputy and step down in exchange for immunity.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called on Saleh tosign the transition deal. "The violence has gone on far too long," Tonertold reporters. "It's taken too many lives."

Pre-dawn fighting between troops loyal to Yemen's embattled leader andrival forces killed at least 18 people in Sanaa on Monday, reviving fearsof civil war in the poor Arabian peninsula nation.

A civil war would significantly hurt efforts led by the U.S. to fightYemen's dangerous al-Qaida branch. It could turn Yemen into a global havenfor militants just a short distance away from the vast oil fields of theGulf and the key shipping lanes in the Arabian and Red Seas to and fromthe Suez Canal.

Break the Chains.info

is a news and discussion forum for supporters of political prisoners, prisoners of war, politicized social prisoners, and victims of police and state intimidation.

This blog is organized and updated autonomously of the disbanded Break the Chains Prisoner Support Network formerly based in Eugene, Oregon. While this online project shares several of the same concerns as the old Break the Chains collective, no formal organization exists behind the current web presence.

"I will never surrender my pride and dignity nor allow the system to 'cut my tongue' and I will always, without fear, speak out against these war crimes and crimes against humanity, no matter if I spend the rest of my life in a prison cage, and draw my last breath of air laying down in this steel bed surrounded by razor-wire fences and cages, and its prison policies that are designed to destroy one's humanity…."